Instrumented Test
The pickup boom of the 1990s and early 2000s brought an explosion of model configurations and trims, as more and more people began using these once-workhorses as their everyday vehicles. Of course, the most dichotomous new species was the sport truck. Pickups focused on performance had existed before—see Express, Li’l Red—but such exercises in silliness peaked when Dodge stuffed the Viper’s 500-hp V-10 into the Ram’s engine bay and created the monstrous SRT10—with a manual transmission no less. It set the (still-standing) top-speed record for production trucks at nearly 155 mph.
While refinement, towing capability, and off-road prowess have since taken precedence over outright speed, Chrysler will still sell you a quick, cool truck. The 2015 Ram 1500 R/T, for example, comes awfully close to hitting the performance marks of its wilder predecessors yet also delivers a level of refinement those bruisers lacked.
Based on the mid-level Sport trim, the 2015 R/T looks like a proper sport truck and is available only in rear-wheel-drive, standard-cab form with a six-foot, four-inch box. The lone engine choice is the 395-hp, 5.7-liter Hemi V-8; it backs up to an 8HP70 eight-speed automatic that spins a 3.92:1 rear-axle ratio. At 5106 pounds, it’s not light—for example, the standard chrome 22-inch wheels wrapped in 285/45-series all-season Goodyears weigh about 90 pounds each. But the Hemi’s 410 lb-ft of torque and the quick-thinking, many-geared ’box win the day when you mash the go pedal.
The truck returned an impressive 5.4-second dash to 60 mph, with the quarter-mile passing in 14.1 at 99 mph. Both figures are at the strong end for current production pickups and just 0.5-second behind the mighty SRT10. Alas, the R/T is no top-speed champ, with its governor dropping anchor at 106 mph. Stopping prowess from 70 mph (189 feet) and lateral grip on the skidpad (0.76 g) are modest at best, yet the truck maintains a sure-footed and balanced feel, thanks to the multiple-link and coil-spring rear suspension and a respectable 54/46-percent weight distribution front to rear.
Despite its purposeful stance, the R/T’s suspension setup is the same as that of normal Ram 1500 models. As a result, overall ride quality remains carlike despite the short wheelbase, and the truck boasts payload and towing capacities of 1380 and 5050 pounds. As expected of a large, heavy thing with a big Hemi engine, our observed fuel economy was a meager 15 mpg. That puts it in line with most of the V-8 pickups we’ve evaluated.
The standard-cab R/T is a small, tidy package for a full-sizer, which is appreciated in parking lots, but our test truck’s bucket seats limited occupancy to just two. There is, however, space for a couple of overnight bags behind the seats, and you can add two locking storage bins if you choose the $1295 RamBox bedside compartments.
Ram doesn’t break out the R/T as a stand-alone thing, but Sport models automatically become R/Ts when configured with the V-8, rear-drive, the standard cab, and the short bed. Pricing for such a setup starts at $36,225 and includes the R/T’s vented hood, big wheels, and monochromatic styling, as well as a dizzying array of amenities compared with sport trucks of yore: a limited-slip diff, a 26-gallon fuel tank, keyless entry, front and side-curtain airbags, a rearview camera, 8.4-inch touch-screen infotainment, a heated steering wheel, a seven-inch digital cluster display, a rotary gear selector, a full-length center console, power-adjustable pedals, power and heated exterior mirrors, and more.
The RamBox compartments were the priciest option on our test truck. Also included was the $665 Trailer Tow and Brake package (wider trailering mirrors, Class IV hitch, and an integrated trailer-brake controller), a $500 tri-fold tonneau cover, the $495 Convenience package (automatic high beams, proximity entry and start, and rain-sensing wipers), a $475 spray-in bedliner, and a $350 remote start and upgraded security bundle. A $195 single-disc CD player in the console, a $140 rear sliding rear window, and a $90 engine-block heater finished things off for a final tally of $40,430. That’s steep for a smallish truck that could prove a handful in wintry conditions, but the overall execution is slick and menacing.
The Ram R/T doesn’t have any direct competitors, as Ford’s F-150 Tremor died in the transition to the all-new aluminum 2015 F-150. The Tremor’s turbocharged EcoBoost V-6 lacked the R/T’s V-8 rumble, enough of a sin for us to choose the Ram, but it was also slower, more expensive, and less fun to wheel. GMC’s 420-hp Sierra 1500 Denali crew cab 4x4 runs neck-and-neck with the R/T up to 100 mph, but a ginormous $55,000 luxo-truck isn’t anyone’s idea of a hot rod.
Sporty pickups are cool in ways that defy common sense. Yet although it’s noticeably more agile and fun to drive than the larger, crew-cab behemoths that dominate the light-truck market, the R/T is still a workaday pickup and its sportiness mostly a veneer. Now it’s time for Ram to go all the way, leveraging Chrysler’s new supercharged, 707-hp Hellcat V-8 to elevate the top-speed record for pickups.
